The college started up in 2008, but it takes a little time for people to find out about a college and its services. A few small groups took the courses in 2009-2010. That must have continued in 2011 because the college is still in existence.

There are no French courses for immigrants in Newfoundland and Labrador. Furthermore, our federation cannot help immigrants either when they set foot on Canadian soil. They have to be permanent residents for us to be able to help them, but then they no longer need us.

John WestonConservative
West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses today.

I don't know whether you know, but our Prime Minister was with President Obama in the Rose Garden, in the Bahamas, a few weeks ago. Mr. Obama said at the time that Mr. Harper was more intelligent than he because he had to speak two languages. That was a little joke, but it's something that makes me proud to be Canadian. We have two official languages, and everyone knows that you can speak two languages if you want to visit Canada or live in Canada.

Ms. Chartrand, you said there were major challenges in the north, where the population density is low. Other witnesses told the committee that there was hope for early childhood. I believe that's normal. Children have more years ahead of them so that they can better learn languages. My three children have had the opportunity to train in French immersion in west Vancouver, and their future will be better as a result of that.

I am not sure about what has been said today regarding early childhood. What facilities are there? What can the roadmap do for early childhood, Ms. Chartrand?

I know that the early childhood centre in Iqaluit recently considered finding other premises or expanding the day care centre because it can no longer meet the demand and is only taking in certain age groups. They would like to extend the service to various age groups so that Nunavut parents can go and work. Everything is expensive in Nunavut, and you absolutely have to have income. Children go to day care and then to school.

Housing is very scarce in Iqaluit; it is hard to find a place to live. The same is true for places where the child care centre could have expanded. Some things have been considered. However, no solution has been found because it is too costly to build a place or to go elsewhere. The day care centre is currently attached to the school. The premises are small, but they are trying to expand them so that they can take in all those requesting space in the day care centre.

Existing facilities have to be expanded not only for the early childhood centre, but for the schools as well. The classrooms are already too small. The children in kindergarten will likely continue their schooling in French. If we don't have those facilities, we will lose them and they will continue their education in English. It is in our interest to obtain increased funding under the roadmap. We have already made the request, but there are delays; it's taking time. We would like the expansion requests to be approved more quickly. Classes in Newfoundland and Labrador are currently encroaching on community facilities. People have to squeeze in so that children can go to school and have slightly more adequate classrooms.

Instead of increasing the classroom size, there should be trailers and so on. We would like to obtain an increase. Mr. Corbineau could talk about that more because he is more aware of the situation than I am.

John WestonConservative
West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC

Even though our government believes that we must invest in the vitality of Canadian bilingualism, I believe the burden also falls on parents. I'm going to ask some clear questions.

In your community, do parents believe that training in another language is good for their children's general education and that that is not just something that we do as Canadians who are proud of our bilingualism? Is there also that sense that this is good for children's education?

Absolutely, that's entirely the case. For example, at our last general meeting, in Fort Smith, anglophone parents there requested French-language services for their children. I was there when they asked for that. Once again, our president recently told me that something had to be done for those children now so as not to lose the immersion school.

Yes. I want to add that, in Yellowknife, the number of students in the city in general is declining. There is a demographic decline. However, the immersion programs are the only sector in the schools where the number of students is increasing.